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Category Archives: Tech

As we all know, any prescription from a healthcare provider comes with directions and dosage amount. Let’s swallow some bitter pills:

40 percent of a hospital’s balance sheet accounts for real estate

Only 1:3 healthcare systems thoroughly evaluate the impact real estate has on profitability

There are 1.68 million hospital beds in the U.S., a number that’s steadily shrinking

“Without using a data-driven approach to real estate, healthcare systems are leaving millions of dollars on the table that could be used to elevate patient experience and quality of care,” says JLL Senior Managing Director Greg Gerber, Healthcare Practice Group lead.… Read More

Across submarkets, Millennials fueled the commercial office market’s robust performance in the second quarter.

As global companies continue to change the complexion of their workforce in favor of digital natives, Millennials are having an increasingly outsized influence on major expansions and headquarters relocations. In 2018 alone, international companies including Rio Tinto, Showpad and iam bank have expanded their Chicago-based North American headquarters. The reason? Illinois is the second-largest producer of computer science graduates in the country.

With Illinois graduates accounting for nearly 10 percent of U.S. computer science degrees last year but only modest tech wage growth locally, Bay Area tech firms and legacy employers alike are seeing Chicago as a necessary outpost, especially for highly technical positions. Most recently, that prompted Walgreens’ to plant its flag at the Old Post Office, establishing a 200,000-square-foot digital hub.

This war for talent has definitely made its way into the development pipeline, with 6.6 million square feet underway. While incremental vacancy increases are likely at this point in the cycle, we’re still seeing rent growth, strong absorption numbers and stable concessions.… Read More

Spoiler alert. In the shared economy, everyone’s customer is the end user. The knowledge worker, the talent, the Millennials, whatever you want to call it. At Chicago 2025, JLL Chicago’s marquee event held earlier this month, we heard from some of the industry’s top thought leaders on how they’re navigating the shared economy’s major changes to the way we operate.

Panelists John Gavin, Andrea Zopp and Chris Kelly

The No. 1 thing tenants talk about is talent, said World Business Chicago president and CEO AndreaZopp, which is positive news for Chicago. We’re drawing college graduates at a higher rate than our comparable cities because people are looking for quality of life, affordability and a wide variety of housing options to evolve in an urban environment. And what talent wants is driving both major business decisions and major municipal ones, like Chicago’s investment in Divvy, our bike share program. All employers want is the ability to compete, and Chicago’s diverse economy, connectivity, access to transit, and quality of neighborhoods are all formidable tools for their arsenal. Expect forward-thinking initiatives like the planned express train to O’Hare to go a long way in attracting and retaining our major corporate occupiers.… Read More

Welcome to Episode 14 of RealTime, JLL Chicago’s industrial podcast. In our one-year anniversary episode, the team fields questions from our valued listeners. The industrial market tried to stump our experts, but were they successful? Listen for a surprise special guest and our hosts’ answers to questions including:

What is the definition ofinfill?

What are you seeing in I-55 as far as demand versus current supply?

Is commercial property beginning to respond to changes in interest rates and values?

If you could put $100 million to work, which submarket would you pick and why?

What’s driving the uptick in leasing of 350,000 to 500,000-square-foot properties?

Thank you to all of our guests and listeners for a fantastic first season. It’s been a pleasure sharing our insight on one of the most exciting and active industrial markets in the country. We continue to learn so much from collaborating with all of you. Season Two is going to clear new heights!

Hundreds of industry leaders joined JLL Chicago to discuss Chicago 2025 and the shared economy. Transforming industries and challenging traditional business models, shared economy giants from Uber to WeWork have also become daily staples for all of us.

ChrisKelly, co-founder and president of Convene, a New York-based “workplace-as-a-service” platform and provider that expanded into Willis Tower last summer, kicked off the big event with a keynote. We’re on the cusp of a new paradigm, which will redefine the form and utility of office buildings. Seeing as office building design hasn’t changed since the turn of the century, the shared economy lifestyle is posing unique challenges for developers and owners alike.

The world will never move this slowly again. Knowing that two of the world’s largest economic forces, the shared economy and technology, have yet to make their mark on real estate’s dominant design, Chris shared some key predictions in building the office towers of the future:… Read More

2017 was a year of mega-mergers in healthcare as providers and payers alike seek economies of scale, often by joining forces, on the journey toward value-based care. This patient-centric model of quality over quantity creates more risk, and responsibility, causing health systems of all sizes and geographies to reevaluate their delivery of care model, build efficiencies and hopefully gain a leg up on the competition.

With downward cost pressures and such a huge emphasis on results, the healthcare of tomorrow is going to look a whole lot different from today’s hospitals and doctors’ offices. In fact, the tech-forward, community-first evolution has already started.

Telehealth: A Skype date with doc

Imagine you’re in a rural community miles from the nearest hospital, or you’re just across the street from one but are challenged by limited mobility. Telehealth leverages technology so patients can seek treatment without ever leaving the house, significantly reducing costs for the health system while shielding vulnerable patients from healthcare-associated infections.

At the $54-million Mercy Virtual Care Center in St. Louis, a nearly 200-year-old health system is pioneering the idea of a “hospital without beds.” With regular virtual visits and remote health data monitoring technology, Mercy can observe even the most critical patients with an even closer eye, learning individual baselines and gaining the ability to distinguish true emergencies from issues that could be solved by changing medications. It’s already reducing readmission rates, improving outcomes and changing the way we think about house calls.… Read More

Welcome to Episode 13 of Real Time, JLL Chicago’s industrial podcast. In the second half of this two-part episode, the team chats with mHUB CEO Haven Allen about Chicago’s local manufacturing ecosystem. With 14,000 establishments already employing more than 400,000 people, there’s opportunity everywhere. We explore how mHUB and its partners are:

Building a community of manufacturing innovation talent

Providing those people with opportunities to grow their ideas with local resources

Creating the conditions for product innovators to survive and thrive in this industrial revolution

Sparking industry collaboration that accelerates the introduction of sustainable new product businesses

“On any given day, about one in 25 hospital patients has at least one healthcare-associated infection,” said JLL Director of Healthcare Technical Operations George Mills. “By taking a proactive approach to compliance, health systems can reduce overall risk in hospital environments.”

George joined JLL last year after serving as Director of the Department of Engineering at The Joint Commission. By exploring the intersection of clinical needs and the physical environment, he’s demonstrating the need for health systems to turn a critical eye to their operational efficiency and outcomes.

Welcome to Episode 12 of Real Time, JLL Chicago’s industrial podcast. In the first half of this two-part episode, the team learns more about mHUB, Chicago’s first innovation center for physical product development and manufacturing. As mHUB approaches its one-year anniversary celebration in March, CEO Haven Allen reflects on:

While unlimited soup, salad and breadsticks is a universal truth at any Olive Garden, an unlimited supply of engineers is not a guarantee in a hot tech market like Silicon Valley. That’s why the most agile and bottom-line-minded tech firms have turned to Chicago to find their next tech talent, whether their need is a half dozen or several hundred of the best and brightest.

“We want to tap into the Chicago market. We’re excited about the tech talent there—the new grads, people returning home because it’s such a livable city,” Foursquare senior vice president of engineering Matt Kamen recently told Crain’s Chicago Business.

While Foursquare is starting to hire just a half-dozen engineers locally, enterprise demand for its location data underscores a high-growth and more diversified future for the New York-based business. Foursquare looked at other up-and-coming markets, from Toronto to Austin, but we can guess one big reason Chicago won—tempered wage growth.… Read More

When it comes to sustainability, companies and landlords need to start thinking outside of the ‘green’ box in order to attract new occupiers in a tightening market. After all, sustainability isn’t just about the environment anymore. It’s also about health and wellness, which is why more and more building owners are looking to add amenities such as fitness centers, bike racks and showers within their facilities, as well as to integrate health and wellness measures into the design of their buildings. However, landlords need to be thoughtful about how they tackle the demand for building amenities, as the added electricity alone can greatly increase the budget, with electrical making up nearly a third of total renovation cost.

There are many pros to adding wellness focused amenities within your building, whether included in ground up construction or through renovation:… Read More

As the nature of work continues to change dramatically, the technology available to us, services we offer our employees and the spaces we create are evolving as well. A focus on experiences is driving the future of workplace culture, which was the topic of conversation last week at the Schaumburg Business Association’s Commercial Real Estate Summit – The Future of Work.

Our own Senior Vice President Mark Kolar and National Workplace Consulting lead Ed Nolanhosted a panel of workplace experts from both established and rapidly growing buzzworthy brands: Google HR Business Manager JackySchiestel; Paylocity VP of Human Resources Jay Schedler; ABT Electronics Co-President Mike Abt; and Andigo COO JeanTheis. Enjoy their culture commandments as inspiration to make bold changes in your own workplace.

Just say yes

ABT doesn’t have an employee manual, but for more than 80 years and three generations, the founding family has been instilling a culture of “yes.” Employees quickly learn to take on any reasonable request from a customer, which infuses the store with positive energy and optimism.… Read More

We were on the scene at NAIOP CRE Converge today, and the common theme was the inevitability of technology and its increasing influence on the commercial real estate industry and beyond. In addition to a podcast recap from our hosts of RealTime, JLL Chicago’s Industrial podcast, we’ve pulled together top future-state tech trends.

Autonomous vehicles

How will autonomous vehicles impact parking requirements and more fundamentally, how we view space? With blockchain technology and macro integration of data, we will be able to view individual properties and sections of cities and towns. Consider the city a body and all the external factors (autonomous vehicles, social norms, etc.) organs. In order to understand how the body functions, you need to have a grasp on each organ and how they interrelate, and technology will help us do that. Eventually that will lead to smarter decision-making when constructing, leasing, managing and selling.… Read More

Since 2008, downtown Chicago has attracted 88 suburban and 13 out-of-market companies, of which 32 have been headquarters relocations. If your company is thinking of making the move or you’re just curious about new neighborhoods, take this headquarters quiz and land on the best submarket for your team!

While corporate real estate strategies are definitely one-size-fits-one, headquarters relocations seem spurred by surprisingly similar reasons. We wouldn’t call this kind of groupthink a bad thing, rather a natural reaction to a global demographic shift. You can’t ignore more than one million people moving into cities every week.

We analyzed the corporate press releas es associated with Chicago’s 32 headquarters relocations since 2008, paying close attention to quotes from each CEO. These leaders have waxed philosophic, strategic, straight up practical and everything in between in their commentary, offering a glimpse into larger pushes for organizational change and innovation.

Our word cloud above sizes words based on how frequently they’ve been used by CEOs. Roll your mouse over each word to see a sample quote and we’ll dig into the top reasons for moving below.… Read More

“A person should not believe in an -ism, he should believe in himself.” –Ferris Bueller

Generation X grew up unsupervised, independent and decidedly anti-establishment. This small, often overlooked cohort entered the corporate world with little fanfare but a wildly different attitude, shirking preconceived notions of work and traditional business dogmas.

Bringing an entrepreneurial mindset to Corporate America has been a major Gen X contribution, bolstered by fluency in technology, prioritization of work/life balance and a fierce pursuit of individuality. Now entering the leadership roles of the C-suite, this generation is the innovative force behind today’s workplace trends—especially their companies’ defining headquarters moves.… Read More

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JLL's Chicago blog offers expert insight on news and trends for owners, investors and tenants of commercial real estate. Learn more about our services and our professionals to see how they’ve helped clients throughout the Chicago area with their commercial real estate needs.

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